Otters

Otters

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

44 Days Until we are Fulltimers?

We are trying to prioritize things in order to get the house emptied out and all our stuff sold by May 6th.

So far things are progressing on the sale of the house. We are cautiously optimistic. We have a “pre-approval letter” from their lender. However, we also had one of those from the buyer on our Tampa house and it meant absolutely nothing.

The buyers live in South Carolina and evidently do not intend to come and see the house. I don’t understand why…maybe they are elderly? All we know is that the man and woman have different last names.

The local relatives of the buyers are coming over on Saturday to do a more detailed inspection of the property. This is when they could either hire a property inspector or do it themselves. The realtor said it’s usually better if they do the inspection themselves. Hopefully they won’t nitpick. When we were in Florida for the winter, we had the well pump turned off and all the out buildings locked. The buyers have until March 31st (we extended their deadline) to do their “due diligence.” If they find something they don’t like they will still be able to void or renegotiate the contract.

We have not moved back into the house. All of our stuff is here in the motor home and the house is staying clean, so we’re not moving back into the house at least until after the inspection. We may not move back there at all. We thought it might be nice for the kitties to have one last chance to romp around their “big” house, but then it’s such a problem to catch them and get them back in the motor home.

I had not done any laundry the last week we were in Tampa thinking once we got back to Georgia, I would just do it all there. I have a big pile of dirty clothes :(

I was so looking forward to having my washer, dryer and clothesline back. I got the first load washed and when I came back to put them in the dryer the floor was wet. Not a ton of water, but the washer was definitely leaking. We were hoping it was a hose, but no such luck. Al thinks it’s the water pump. So now what do we do? Buy a new washer? Definitely not. Replace the water pump? Well the part is $100 and then there is no guarantee that it is actually the pump, plus it’s something else that takes up valuable time. Rent a washing machine for a month or so? That’s a possibility. We’ve never rented anything like that, so I don’t know how that works, or how much it costs. We could also buy a used machine. Al found one with a 30 day guarantee for $150. That seems a little expensive for using it for a month, but then we would be able to sell it. I don’t mind at all using campground Laundromats, but I’m not so sure about a regular one. My perception is they are nasty and crummy people are there. Maybe I’m wrong. All I know for sure is I really need to wash some clothes!

Yesterday was a busy day for us and by the time night fell, we were two very tired people!

We put an ad in the newspaper for a moving sale here at the house on Saturday. We have never had one at the house before and always rejected that idea because we didn’t want strangers coming into our little private piece of paradise. Now that we’re leaving, we aren’t so bothered by it. We also got to know a lot of the garage sale crowd in town and they are decent people so we aren’t concerned that we’ll have a bunch of scumbags coming. We just don’t know how many people we will draw because we are a little out side of town.

We went by and reserved a small storage shed. We need this “safety net” for the things that we don’t sell or need to keep. We are not selling the mower, golf cart or utility trailer until the check is in our hand, so we’ll definitely need a place to keep them until we sell them.

We got some gas for the mowers and went home and started the job of mowing and cleaning up the property. We had a winters worth of leaves on the close in front yard. I mowed off and on most of the day and by the time the day ended I was sore all over. Riding that mower makes you feel like you’ve been in a car accident, like you’ve been beaten up!

It’s looking better already but we still have lots more mowing and clean up to do. A few plants died over the winter but they may not get cut down. Some things will have to be left for the new owners.

Today we need to get some shock and chlorine for the very green pool and make some decisions on the washing machine. I will continue mowing.

Some time between now and Saturday morning, we have to organize a garage sale. We are going to start selling furniture, but we’re not moving it all to the garage. I think we’ll put some stuff in the garage and just tell people that we have furniture if they are interested, we can take them to the house. We’re just not sure how to manage all this. I guess I need to put some prices on the furniture.

Another project for today will be to photograph and Craig’s List some things.

Laundry mats are where we always go when good old reliable stops working. Yes here there is sometimes the not so welcoming face there...but most of the time it is moms like me. I just never walk away from my clothes..and always lock my car doors..lolExcited about the sale of the house!Cindy and Walker

We use laundromats quite often and I find them very entertaining. Have met some really really nice people there. You are really quite organized so this next 44 days hopefully won't be too stressful for you. Good luck with everything.

We have mostly used campground laundries, but have on occasion used a commercial one. While some scrutiny in advance does not hurt in some areas. Mostly, we have found them to be clean and well maintained.

Oh Karen I'm so jealous!! Sounds like everything is going o.k. so far. I want to wish you guys luck, right now I'd just like to have my RV back! I want to be retired so bad & we are getting so close. Hope to see you again, maybe on the road! Karen Bauer

I'm not sure why you think that laundromats are overrun by crummy people. I have never run into any, and I have used laundromats many different times for various reasons. For example now I take our large comforter in from time to time because I used the giant machine to get it cleaner than at home.

You might want to watch out for what neighborhood the laundromat is in. If there are bars on the windows you might want to avoid the local laundry.

The best thing about doing your laundry at a laundromat is you can uses lots of machines at once and get it all done in qn afternoon. Maybe Al should go with you and help fold, then you wouldn't feel afraid of the other people there.

Well, call me crazy but I'm with you on laundromats. Ever since I had two pairs of brand new pants ruined from some idiot leaving bleach in the machine, I have hated laundromats. I've had to use them in the past when we were RVing in our first motor home - they were fine in the campground, but I was scared when I had to venture into a strange town. I'd buy a used washer and then re-sell it. I'm so glad I have a washer and dryer in our current motorhome.